There has been a flurry of activity in the casting department for the cleverly titled independent drama Robot and Frank, which Jake Schreier will direct from an original screenplay by Christopher Ford.

Earlier in the week, Variety reported that Liev Schreiber, Jeremy Strong and Liv Tyler had been cast in a picture that already had lured two heavy hitters in Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon. Next, the trade added that James Marsden has agreed to join the ensemble, and would be playing the role of one of Langella’s sons. (Unfortunately, unlike in Richard Kelly's The Box, it’s unlikely Langella will once again present Marsden’s character with a box, a button, and a life-changing offer.)

A press release distributed by the newly formed Park Pictures Features decribes Robot as a family comedy set in the future that follows a curmedgeonly old loner named Frank (Langella) whose daily routine involves visiting his lone friend, a librarian (Sarandon). Tired of seeing their father all alone, though, Frank's children (Tyler, Marsden) set him up with a caretaker robot (voiced by Schreiber), and an unlikely friendship between man and machine eventually forms.

That's an admirable ensemble for a family film, and if anyone can sell the emotional bond between a lonely soul and a soulless machine, it's Langella. Park Pictures also confirmed that Frank is the first of several planned features on the narrative feature company's to-do list, which also includes a new project from British director Ringan Ledwidge, an adaptation of Sam Lipsyte's best-selling novel The Ask, and an adaptation of David Foster Wallace's short story, Little Expressionless Animals.